The other week I went with a mate to a recycling centre, and after a quick look around, headed for the computer section, pretty bare, couple of PCs, and then I saw it, platinum, turned out to be a IIsi, okay, well, I pop the case, and my heart sank, something had happened, something had exploded, I have no idea how or why, but the PRAM battery, still in it's cradle, had been blown off the motherboard. A rather spectacular failure. Oh well, parts, now, there was something distinctly odd about the machine, someone had shoehorned two hard drives into the case, one on top of the other, and apart from being a tidy hardware hack, it was rather pointless IMHO. And may have been what caused the machine to fail. So I squeeze the top of the case back on and head to the counter to pay for it, $3 it ended up costing me. I turn to walk away, and then I sees it, an Indigo tray-load iMac, it's still stock config. set me back $5, keyboard nowhere to be seen, which is a shame because I'm really short on USB keyboards, I have three iKey keyboards floating around, but I don't trust them. So for $8 I got a decent machine, and some spare parts of as yet unknown status. Half tempted to leave my name and number next time I head down there in case any more Macs come along.
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Two sort of Conquests
- Thread starter AusNick
- Start date
Very nice. 
Have you got pics of the IIsi? Sounds like the machine has been dropped or whatever at some point, and the very old PRAM battery has exploded. This reminds me - my Q700 still has its original, dated 1991. It still remembers its date and time. Should I worry about it, and replace it?
By the way, how come you don't trust the iKey keyboards? I thought they were fairly decent?
Have you got pics of the IIsi? Sounds like the machine has been dropped or whatever at some point, and the very old PRAM battery has exploded. This reminds me - my Q700 still has its original, dated 1991. It still remembers its date and time. Should I worry about it, and replace it?By the way, how come you don't trust the iKey keyboards? I thought they were fairly decent?
I usually will replace my batteries when they hit 10 years no matter how well they are working. I once got a IIfx in that I had to send to the recycling facility since the batteries had leaked all over the board--and it was only about 12-13 years old at the time. (Of course, I did strip it of its hard drive first since it was a huge internal SCSI--hard to come by even in 2003).
The oldest working battery I have ever seen is 14 years (1989 manufacture date in 2003, installed in an SE).
The oldest working battery I have ever seen is 14 years (1989 manufacture date in 2003, installed in an SE).
Corrosion from the inside is certainly possible. Also I suspect, but do not care to prove, that the battery will eventually explode if the SMT version of the 1N914 blocking diode in series with the battery starts to leak for any reason, including electrolytic capacitor crap, and allows the battery to be charged by the +5V.
Yeah, looking at the mess inside there was no way I could get the thing running again. I'll have to do the same to a couple if dead IIci's, a long overdue promise I made to my parents when I got my shed, that I'd go through all my stuff and get rid of the junk. 
In the case of the ci's, I'll be holding onto the cases
On the upside, that should add to my list of spares. I felt pretty bad about it though. There just seemed to be something wrong with gutting the thing, felt like I was letting the team down somehow. But if the parts I salvaged from the IIsi bring another machine back to life, well, that sort of balances out.
In the case of the ci's, I'll be holding onto the casesOn the upside, that should add to my list of spares. I felt pretty bad about it though. There just seemed to be something wrong with gutting the thing, felt like I was letting the team down somehow. But if the parts I salvaged from the IIsi bring another machine back to life, well, that sort of balances out.
I know, but it just felt weird, that's all.
And being realistic about it, it was really the only choice I had.
Thing is, I have trouble doing it to PCs as well. If the machine is in working order, I'd prefer to keep it that way. I have about four or five PCs, two I keep for testing of PC keayboards and mice I get given or rescue, but the others, I can't throw them away because they still work, they might be old, and limited, but surely they have some use.
Frinstance I've got a weird-looking HP 'Multimedia' Pc, i say weird because it's tower case reminds me of a rocket, it's a 200MHz PentiumPro, right at the low end of useful, but it's got USB ports, which means one can plug modern devices into it. When I saved it from hard rubbish, the CD-ROM was cactus, but other than that the machine runs. There's bugger all RAM in it, 32MB I think and it's running Win95, it's a stock config. just like the big sticker on the front says, but with a bit of TLC this machine at the very least is a word processor, and probably good for little else, but I can't bring myself to strip it for parts, even though I'd like to reclaim the shelf space. And I don't want to give it away for it to be used briefly and then tossed because it's old, that'd be a waste. If I could find a good home for it, great, but if not, I'd rather hold onto it. In a perfect world, I'd only ever toss out the broken parts, but…it's not, so I have to make sacrifices. I do hold out a somewhat forlorn hope that a particular opportunity will present itself, but I doubt it'll ever happen, and I have next to no knowledge of programming or network protocols to make it happen myself, sorry, ignore that, it's what happens when one reads any Willaim Gibson Novel and then plays too much Oni.
And being realistic about it, it was really the only choice I had.
Thing is, I have trouble doing it to PCs as well. If the machine is in working order, I'd prefer to keep it that way. I have about four or five PCs, two I keep for testing of PC keayboards and mice I get given or rescue, but the others, I can't throw them away because they still work, they might be old, and limited, but surely they have some use.
Frinstance I've got a weird-looking HP 'Multimedia' Pc, i say weird because it's tower case reminds me of a rocket, it's a 200MHz PentiumPro, right at the low end of useful, but it's got USB ports, which means one can plug modern devices into it. When I saved it from hard rubbish, the CD-ROM was cactus, but other than that the machine runs. There's bugger all RAM in it, 32MB I think and it's running Win95, it's a stock config. just like the big sticker on the front says, but with a bit of TLC this machine at the very least is a word processor, and probably good for little else, but I can't bring myself to strip it for parts, even though I'd like to reclaim the shelf space. And I don't want to give it away for it to be used briefly and then tossed because it's old, that'd be a waste. If I could find a good home for it, great, but if not, I'd rather hold onto it. In a perfect world, I'd only ever toss out the broken parts, but…it's not, so I have to make sacrifices. I do hold out a somewhat forlorn hope that a particular opportunity will present itself, but I doubt it'll ever happen, and I have next to no knowledge of programming or network protocols to make it happen myself, sorry, ignore that, it's what happens when one reads any Willaim Gibson Novel and then plays too much Oni.
Hey AusNick, what part of town are you in? And what recycling center did you head to?
I'm almost reluctant to mention it after my last score, but the shop at Reservoir tip has been great.
I'm almost reluctant to mention it after my last score, but the shop at Reservoir tip has been great.
